Humanistic Theories
Humanism represents a significant shift away from the
psychoanalytic view of the individual as a neurotic, impulse-driven person with
repressed psychic problems and away from the focus on and examination of the
client’s past experiences. Humanism
focuses on a person’s positive qualities, his or her capacity to change (human
potential), and the promotion of self-esteem. Humanists do consider the
person’s past experiences, but they direct more atten-tion toward the present
and future.
Abraham Maslow (1921–1970) was an American psy-chologist who
studied the needs or motivations of the individual. He differed from previous
theorists in that he focused on the total person, not just on one facet of the
person, and emphasized health instead of simply illness and problems. Maslow
(1954) formulated the hierarchy of needs, in which he used a pyramid to
arrange and illustrate the basic
drives or needs that motivate people. The most basic needs—the physiological
needs of food, water, sleep, shelter, sexual expression, and freedom from
pain—must be met first. The second level involves safety and security needs,
which include protection, security, and freedom from harm or threatened
deprivation. The third level is love and belonging needs, which include
enduring intimacy, friendship, and acceptance. The fourth level involves esteem
needs, which include the need for self-respect and esteem from others. The
highest level is self-actualization, the need for beauty, truth, and justice.
Maslow hypothesized that the basic needs at the bot-tom of the
pyramid would dominate the person’s behavior until those needs were met, at
which time the next level of needs would become dominant. For example, if needs
for food and shelter are not met, they become the overriding concern in life:
the hungry person risks danger and social ostracism to find food.
Maslow used the term self-actualization
to describe a person who has achieved all the needs of the hierarchy and has
developed his or her fullest potential in life. Few peo-ple ever become fully
self-actualized.
Maslow’s theory explains individual differences in terms of a
person’s motivation, which is not necessarily stable throughout life. Traumatic
life circumstances or compromised health can cause a person to regress to a
lower level of motivation. For example, if a 35-year-old woman who is
functioning at the “love and belonging” level discovers she has cancer, she may
regress to the “safety” level to undergo treatment for the cancer and pre-serve
her own health. This theory helps nurses under-stand how clients’ motivations
and behaviors change dur-ing life crises .
Carl Rogers (1902–1987) was a humanistic American psychologist who
focused on the therapeutic relationship and developed a new method of
client-centered therapy. Rogers was one of the first to use the term client rather than patient. Client-centered
therapy focuses on the role of the client, rather than the therapist, as
the key to the healing process. Rogers believed that each person experi-ences
the world differently and knows his or her own experience best (Rogers, 1961).
According to Rogers, cli-ents do “the work of healing,” and within a supportive
and nurturing client–therapist relationship, clients can cure themselves.
Clients are in the best position to know their own experiences and make sense
of them, to regain their self-esteem, and to progress toward
self-actualization.
The therapist takes a person-centered approach, a sup-portive role,
rather than a directive or expert role, because Rogers viewed the client as the
expert on his or her life.
The therapist must promote the client’s self-esteem as much as
possible through three central concepts:
·
Unconditional positive regard—a nonjudgmental caring for the client that is not dependent on
the client’s behavior
·
Genuineness—realness or congruence
between what the therapist feels and
what he or she says to the client
·
Empathetic understanding—in which the therapist senses the feelings and personal meaning from
the client and communicates this understanding to the client.
Unconditional positive regard promotes the client’s self-esteem and
decreases his or her need for defensive behavior. As the client’s self-acceptance
grows, the natural self-actualization process can continue.
Rogers also believed that the basic nature of humans is to become
self-actualized, or to move toward self-improvement and constructive change. We
are all born with a positive self-regard and a natural inclination to become
self-actualized. If relationships with others are supportive and nurturing, the
person retains feelings of self-worth and progresses toward self-actualization,
which is healthy. If the person encounters repeated conflicts with others or is
in nonsupportive relationships, he or she loses self-esteem, becomes defensive,
and is no longer inclined toward self-actualization; this is not healthy.
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